Source: Urban Land Institute
Source: Urban Land Institute
Source: Urban Land Institute
Source: Urban Land Institute
Source: Urban Land Institute
Written By Dionne Hoh and Steven Gu
A panel of land use experts convened in Singapore this January to explore
development strategies for its upcoming Jurong Lake District. The 10-member
panel, put together by the Urban Land Institute, spent a week in Singapore
learning about it, before coming up with recommendations to make this
upcoming regional centre more attractive, vibrant, and liveable for residents,
short-term travellers and businesses.
The opportunity to bring together this team of experts in master-development,
master-planning, investment, project finance, public service in project delivery,
planning and politics, came about in mid-September 2017, when the Centre
for Liveable Cities (CLC) and the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) invited
the ULI’s Advisory Services Program to provide strategies to support the
government’s planned land parcel sales for Jurong Lake District over the next
few years. This was part of a blueprint unveiled by URA in 2008 to reinvent this
once pioneering industrial town that is home to over 226,000 residents today
into Singapore’s largest commercial centre outside of the city centre.
“The district is the base from which a kind of cocktail of innovative people can
come together within very attractive environments with a lot of flexibility,” said Prof. Kees Christiaanse, lead member of the winning master plan consultant,
KCAP Architects&Planners. Jurong lake District is looking forward to two major
projects, including housing the High-Speed Rail between Kuala Lumpur and
Singapore, slated to be completed by end 2026, and the Tuas port, with its final
phase completing by 2021.
The ULI panel, consisting of members from three continents and five different
countries, flew in to Singapore to start work on a Sunday, where they were
warmly welcomed by CLC Executive Director Khoo Teng Chye over lunch. This
was followed by an informative walking tour of Singapore’s current Central
Business District (CBD) by CLC Fellow Michael Koh to equip them with the
knowledge to continue the narrative of the second CBD in Jurong Lake District.
The panel was then welcomed by Peter Ho, Chairman of the URA with a Chinese
New Year dinner to give them a flavour of local culture and festivities as well.
The following two days saw the panel get up-close and personal with Jurong
Lake District. Experts from local agencies URA, LTA, and JTC introduced the
panel to the challenges and opportunities in the district’s current master plan,
and took them on a study tour of two current mixed-use developments, JEM and
Westgate, and a transit connector, the J-Walk. At a public reception at JTC tower
with over 90 land use professionals, the panel debated into the night to identify
the needs and aspirations of the place. They also interviewed both public and
private stakeholders of the district.
“The interviews were really interesting… we got people who had relevant,
[candid] opinions...all in one day,” said the panel’s chairman, Jeremy Newsum,
formerly from Grosvenor Estate in London, UK.
For the rest of the week, the panel digested and consolidated the information
gathered from the presentation and interviews. They deliberated and debated
on the best practices that would allow Jurong Lake District to achieve its fullest
potential and presented these to the Ministry of National Development (MND),
URA, and CLC on the last day of the workshop that was also graced by MND
Permanent Secretary Ow Foong Pheng. To mark the end of the workshop, the
panel was invited to an appreciation lunch hosted by the Minister for National
Development and Second Minister for Finance, Lawrence Wong.
CLC Executive Director Khoo was impressed with what the panel achieved in
such a short time. “The presentation by the panel was incredible… I don’t think
that would have happened in any other contexts or situation.” He believed
ULI’s ability to pull together high-calibre land use experts from around the
world would benefit the intense urban development going on in this part of
the world today. “The ULI Advisory Services process has impressed everyone.
On the government’s side, everyone is saying ‘Wow, we put in a lot of effort,
but it is worth it’.”
The panel also had a very positive overall experience working with Singapore,
and was certain that their hard work would be taken seriously. One of the
panel members, Simon Tracey of The Howard Hughes Corporation in the
USA, said, “Singapore is a place [that] will seriously digest, workshop, actively
consider [recommendations], and make it something even better than what
we [provided].”
About the Writers
Dionne Ho
Dionne manages the CLC’s real estate research and partnerships. She has
written publications on car-lite urban mobility and on local planning concepts,
including Reimagining Orchard Road, Urban Mobility: 10 Cities in Asia Pacific and
Creating Liveable Cities Through Car-Lite Urban Mobility. She is also an active
young leader member of the Urban Land Institute. Dionne holds a Bachelor
of Science (Honours) in Real Estate from the National University of Singapore
Steve Gu
Steven Gu is a Fulbright research fellow from the United States. At the CLC,
he is conducting research on biking accessibility in Singapore. Prior to CLC,
Steven was with the Urban Land Institute in Washington, D.C. for two years
in the Advisory Services program, working with both public and private sector
on land use issues. He graduated from Swarthmore College (Honours) in
Urban Studies and Political Science.